This paper aims to demonstrate the conceptualization of smṛti in terms of epistemology in the Cheng Weishi Lun (henceforth: CWSL), furthermore, it gives a possible understanding regarding how cognitive function of smṛti operates in Yogācāra soteriology. Looking through the thought of Abhidharma, one can find, roughly, two forms of smṛti accounted as a mental factor: (1) one component in the mechanical procedure that forms a perceptual episode and fulfill the continuity of mental activities in the Sarvāstivādin tradition; (2) as recollection that connect the present event to the memory of the past in the Yogācāra school. Stance of the CWSL surely follows the latter, however, it settles the mechanical procedure that links between thoughts and sustains mental stream on the perfuming (vāsanā) power from the previous mental factor and the function of samjña. Also, not without the definition which deems smṛti the basis for samādhi to arise and further facilitate the acquisition of knowledge. On the basis of this, I will first examine the understanding of smṛti in the CWSL and other Yogacara treatises, and comparing it with the related passages presented in the Mahāvibhāṣā and Saṃghabhadra’s Nyāyānusāra. Second, I will elaborate on how smṛti support the beneficial mental state for liberation through investigating the secondary studies that bridge the two aspects of smṛti, namely, its epistemological characteristic that memorize and its soteriological feature that being mindful.
